Customer Service: What the Experts Can Teach UsWe all use quotes from experts or famous people to illustrate ideas we want to get across to other people.

But, says Jason Brick, a contributor to Open Forum, you can’t just share these quotes with your staff and expect them to get it. “You’ve got to act on it yourself so your team learns by your example.”

Brick suggests applying some of these “compelling customer service quotes” to your business:

Compelling Customer Service Quotes

“It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.” Henry Ford, Ford Motor Company

How can your business act on this?

CEO: Talk and act in such a way that everyone in the company understands “how much you value your customers and care about their experience.”

Managers: Treat the team well enough that employees are happy to work there. “If they care about your brand, their enthusiasm will spill over into interactions with your customers.”

Employees: Get in the habit of practicing excellent customer service, interacting with customers “the way they would with the highest levels of company leadership.”

“Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.” Jeffery Gitomer, Author/Professional Speaker

CEO: Create a culture - “supported by tangible rewards” - that values going beyond normal expectations for performance.

Managers: Reward your team whenever you hear about top notch customer service, or “catch somebody doing something extra to develop loyalty in your customers.”

Employees: Be on the lookout for any opportunity to exceed a customer’s expectations.

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” Bill Gates, Cofounder, Microsoft

CEO: Every week, review a selected number of customer complaints with the appropriate employees, “looking for patterns that suggest what you should fix."

Managers: Reconfigure customer complaint processes so they focus more on “identifying how something went wrong at a systemic or organizational level instead of leveling blame on an individual.”

Employees: Start by addressing and fixing a customer’s issue, then identify precisely what caused the problem “and finally by suggesting a fix ‘up the food chain’ so the problem is eliminated at the highest level.”

“If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting.” Stephen Covey, Author, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

CEO: Respond to suggestions for improvement with a couple of sentences about what might happen if you accept the suggestion.

Managers: Optimize team performance by fostering a culture of openness that welcomes suggestions from everyone, and then act on the best ideas generated by that culture.

Employees: Seek out changes, both large and small, that “make their jobs—and their customers’ experiences—easier and better.”